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I find that self-taught people have a bias towards self-taught. They see it as a reflection of passion, because that's someone who took their own initiative to learn. I see it differently, for two reasons: 1. The best programmers I've ever worked with (directly, and also the best programmers in the company) were NOT self-taught. They did CS undergrad, possibly MS, and (rarely) PhD. So I simply observe a strong correlation. 2. To me, if you chose another degree for your undergrad, then that's a signal that you were NOT most passionate about computers at that age. Film school, art school, poli sci... you either liked those fields more than computers, or were stronger in those areas. Fantastic. But I could not imagine myself having chosen any degree except CS, having programmed since a wee lad. Now, I've met and worked with plenty of self-taught awesomes, including with non-CS degrees, or without any undergrad at all. For me, degree isn't a must-have on a resume. But I like the signal. |